Red Hydrogen One smartphone wants to bring us a step closer to real life holographic communication

Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Arrowverse, and a raft of other science fiction franchise and TV Shows contain some science fiction tech that at their time of conception have been thought to be impossible. One such tech is the cell phone but as we all know, the cell phone today practically control’s almost every human life. Another science fiction tech that naysayers had written off as impossible is the holographic communication, but recent innovations by tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook and RED have demonstrated just how wrong the naysayers were. For example, the Red Hydrogen One smartphone by the RED Company promises to make holographic communication a reality.

Microsoft, through a multitude of 3D cameras, already demonstrated how an individual and objects can be holoported (holographically teleported) from one place to a significantly distant place and be reconstructed and texturized at the receiving end to look as the image of the person or object being holoported. This YouTube video explains the Microsoft concept.

But the problem with Microsoft’s tech is that it requires a multitude of 3D cameras, a huge computer system with a massive computational power, and a head mounted VR gear like the hololens. Practically therefore, the Microsoft holoportation concept is way beyond reach as far as everyday lifestyle is concerned.

A real life everyday lifestyle gadget that would allow a seamless holographic communication would be a gadget that one can carry around, just as we carry around smartphones. Even though the computational power of smartphones haven’t reached a level where images of object can be gathered, transmitted and reconstructed instantly, things aren’t looking o gloomy. In the past few years, actually since 2002, companies such as Sharp launched autostereoscopic displays for smartphones that made alive the dream of making holographic communication a reality.

These 3D smartphones have suffered from a few issues, top being that most of them are crappy and those that tend to work in interesting ways require the user to wear 3D glasses. These are however bound to change as RED, a company known for making high end motion cameras, the RED Cameras, announced last year that it was working on a smartphone that can allow 2D, 3D, and 4V display. By the time of the announcement, what the RED company had for their Red Hydrogen One smartphone were prototypes. A year later after the announcement, and a few weeks before the unveiling of the Red Hydrogen One Smartphone, two big telecommunication companies in the US, Verizon and AT&T, have confirmed that they will be supporting and selling the Red Hydrogen One device.

Not much is known of the Red Hydrogen One smartphone, other than it is a device that will be running on Android, has a 5.7 inches 2K screen, and has 4V display. 4V is a technology that allows for a “holographic mode” display, and according to Jim Jannard who is the founder of RED Company, 4V is a better display than 3D. “The holographic display comes from a partnership with HP spinoff Leia Inc — yes, like the princess. That should give you an idea what the screen image looks like. In 4V mode, the screen dims and images appear to pop out from the phone”, explained Ryan Whitwam of Extreme Tech.

There are those who have been able to experience the 4V display, including Marques Brownlee who has put up a few videos explaining the Red Hydrogen One in his YouTube channel. Judging by Marques’ facials when experiencing the display, the description by Ryan that someone who has experienced the display ““gasps, swears, or just grins” isn’t far fetched.

For those who want to be among the first to experience this futuristic device and be a step closer at enjoying holographic communication, what they need to do is to be ready to cough not less than $1,200 for the basic device (aluminium made) or add another $400 and be in the club of those who will be walking around with a titanium cased Red Hydrogen One smartphone.

For that amount though, you will be able to customize the Red Hydrogen One to give it unique capabilities, or even easily replace torn out parts with new components.